The Way to Cut a Wick

After the Rebbe rose from Rav Yosef's bed, he davened Mincha and sat down to learn before Maariv. As the sun set, the house grew dark, and the Chozeh sat studying by candlelight. Rav Yosef noticed that the wick was too long and the flame was not giving enough light. He took his holy father's shneitz sherel, the small scissors for trimming wicks that Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz himself used to use, and handed it to his young son, Rav Pinchos. He asked him to tiptoe quietly into the Chozeh's room and trim the wick, so that the pages of the seforim on the table would be better lit.

"Wait until you see that the Chozeh pauses from looking in his sefer," he told him. "At a moment when he is not totally immersed in his learning, you can hand him the scissors." Rav Pinchos did as he was instructed, but the Chozeh pushed the scissors away and continued studying by the dim light. Rav Pinchos had been terrified to begin with of interrupting the Chozeh, and he was reluctant to try again. So his father, Rav Yosef, approached to fix the wick himself.

Again the Chozeh brushed the scissors away, gesturing not to be disturbed. Rav Yosef could not understand it. Surely the tzaddik needed better light to study by, and what could be wrong with the scissors? "The Rebbe need not worry," Rav Yosef reassured the Chozeh. "These scissors belonged to my holy father; he himself trimmed wicks with this shneitz sherel."

The Chozeh turned to Rav Yosef of Ostila and explained his behavior. "Your holy father, Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz, was able to trim the wick with these scissors. You know what is written in the holy seforim, especially in the works of the Rambam: every mitzvah that we were commanded to fulfill is only in order to bring about the rapture of dveikus (cleaving) to Hashem. This is why the Zohar calls the 613 commandments 'good pieces of advice,' for they advise us how to attach ourselves to Hashem. Now, if I were to trim the wick of this candle, it would require me to pinpoint my thoughts on that very precise act. This tzimtzum (contraction) of concentration would interrupt my dveikus and disconnect me.

"I could not allow my thoughts to continue wandering the supernal Heavenly levels above while my hands did their work with no supervision. If I had, the wick would be poorly trimmed and go out completely, and I would be left in the dark. Therefore I refrained from using the scissors. It is forbidden for me to interrupt my dveikus to Hashem. Unlike me, your father was able to focus and concentrate his thoughts without disconnecting his dveikus, and so he could use those scissors. But I do not have the power to do so."